Investigating the Effect of Virtual Laboratory Simulation in Chemistry on Learning Achievement, Self-Efficacy, and Learning Experience

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of virtual laboratory simulation in chemistry on learning achievement, self-efficacy, and learning experience for first-year undergraduate students. This research was quasi-experiment with a two-group pretest-posttest design. The research used a purposive sampling of 95 first-year undergraduate students who enrolled in general chemistry subject. The participants were classified into two groups that consisted of the control group and the experimental group. Each group comprised members with low and high knowledge levels from the pre-test score. The control and experiment groups were required to learn chemistry topics in a traditional lecture for 3 hours. For the experimental group, students attended learning with the virtual lab simulation in chemistry for 1.5 hours. The results demonstrated that virtual lab simulation in chemistry had a positive effect on learning achievement, self-efficacy, and learning experience. The students who participated in the traditional lecture followed by virtual lab simulation had significantly higher knowledge and self-efficacy scores than learning through only a traditional lecture. Moreover, the effect of virtual lab simulation differed depending on levels of the students’ initial knowledge and self-efficacy at pre-test, the group of low knowledge and self-efficacy levels gained a positive impact that was higher than the high-level group. The results of the learning experience found that virtual lab simulation encouraged students’ motivation in learning and understanding the concept of chemistry via interactive 3D simulation. The results of this study indicated that virtual lab simulation could be an effective tool in supporting learning achievement and self-efficacy for learning chemistry. It was effective when a traditional lecture in chemistry was supplemented by virtual lab simulation-based learning.